NVIDIA’s SHIELD Tablet Now Shipping to U.S. and Canada

NVIDIA’s beefy SHIELD tablet is shipping to customers in the U.S. and Canada today. That’s a pretty speedy turnaround considering NVIDIA only announced the device last week.

The SHIELD tablet’s innards are packed with all sorts of awesome specs, including the NVIDIA K1 mobile processor. The TegraK1 has 192 cores at its disposal, and supports GRID Butt Streaming, PC Streaming and is the first Android tablet to feature Twitch support. Storage can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card slot. Like the Tegra Note 7, a Direct Stylus is on board, as well as front-facing stereo speakers and an 8-inch full HD display. The WiFi 16GB version is currently available for purchase, with the 32GB LTE/WiFi version coming soon. Pricing starts at $299 for the 16GB WiFi version, $59.99 for the SHIELD wireless controller and $39.99 for the SHIELD tablet cover.

Since NVIDIA decided to de-couple the controller from the SHIELD tablet you’ll have to pay an extra $60 for the SHIELD Wireless Controller, which literally looks like the SHIELD portable without the screen. The controller can also be used with the SHIELD portable, and uses low latency WiFi direct to establish a connection.

The SHIELD tablet is currently available for purchase from a variety of retailers including Amazon, Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics, GameStop, Micro Center, Newegg and Tiger Direct, and straight from NVIDIA at shield.nvidia.com.